Ethernet switches are growing in capability. As a consequence the role of Ethernet is rapidly expanding in networks that were the domain of other technologies such as SONET/SDH TDM and ATM. The question of how Ethernet will evolve and what capabilities it can offer in these areas is still under development.
Ethernet as specified today is a system. How spanning tree, data plane flooding and MAC learning combine to populate forwarding tables and produce resilient any-to-any behavior in a bridged network is well understood. What is less obvious is that the resulting behavior is purely a consequence of this particular combination of functions combined with what the underlying hardware can do, and that by simply disabling some Ethernet functionality, it is possible to employ alternative control planes and obtain different forwarding behaviors.
It is desirable to be able to drive Ethernet towards increasingly deterministic behavior. One behavior of note is that of Provider Backbone Transport (PBT) as disclosed in commonly assigned U.S patent application No. US20050220096 filed Apr. 4, 2004 and hereby incorporated by reference. Using PET, Ethernet switches may perform PBT MAC forwarding on the basis of a statically configured VID/MAC tuple. This means the forwarding hardware performs a full 60 bit lookup (VID(12)+MAC DA (48)) only requiring uniqueness of the full 60 bits for forwarding to resolve correctly.
Generalized Multi-protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) extends MPLS to provide the control plane (signaling and routing) for devices that switch in any of these domains: packet, time, wavelength, and fiber. GMPLS signaling is well suited to setup paths with labels but it does require a minimal IP control plane and IP connectivity so it is suited to certain scenarios where a large number of paths or dynamic path management is required. The common control plane promises to simplify network operation and management by automating end-to-end provisioning of connections, managing network resources, and providing the level of QoS that is expected in the new, sophisticated applications.
As Ethernet expands into provider network these is a need to leverage the benefits of GMPLS deterministic behavior with the flexibility of Ethernet.
Accordingly, systems and methods that enable the configuration of Ethernet switch paths is highly desirable in a GMPLS environment.